finished up empire and worm story, might expand later but right now i'm happy with it

Author: JenniferPylko

.vscode/settings.json

@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
         "Eoch",
         "Eochan",
         "Erranovna",
+        "etern",
         "Ethrenal",
         "Ethrenic",
         "exfiltrating",

stories/empire-and-worm.md

@@ -46,4 +46,112 @@ Olam Spoke, "I should need more specificity to answer. What does it mean to sens
 
 Ocellux spoke again, "At the end of the road, what step does one take?"
 
-Olam smiled, having brought the conversation to exactly where he wanted, "Other worlds. Warble is but a part of a larger cosmos. Expansion need not be limited by the edges of our world. We will pierce the aether and take for empire the breadth of creation."
+Olam smiled, having brought the conversation to exactly where he wanted, "Other worlds. Warble is but a part of a larger cosmos. Expansion need not be limited by the edges of our world. We will pierce the aether and take for empire the breadth of creation."
+
+"I want Adnexa working with you on this." The Emperor stated.
+
+"Oh? What role should she have? Reporting progress to you, I should assume."
+
+"Indeed, but," Ocellux motioned with an upturned palm at Adnexa.
+
+"Besides the depth of my study on all manner of arcana, I possess the eyes of Orion. That should be of use, no?"
+
+This was more than Olam could have hoped for. Adnexa's partnership would mean resources limitless, in both kind and quantity.
+
+---
+
+"What are your impressions?" Emperor Ocellux asked after Olam had departed.
+
+"Understands the path, and will be easy to manipulate." Adnexa answered. "And, he is a man who desires a woman. I shall have no trouble."
+
+---
+
+Rustling of paper, scrawling of a pen, sliding of books over each other. The sound from the study was nearly rhythmic as Olam and Adnexa worked. They alternated thoughts as they exchanged words.
+
+"We need an extreme amount of power *and* something to latch onto."
+
+"Pull open a rift. What foreign thing might we use?"
+
+"We can't even contact deities anymore, much less see through the aether veil."
+
+"Perhaps the wrong direction to be looking. Where else lie the forces of creation?"
+
+"Down."
+
+"The Thousand Worms."
+
+"We'd need an incredible amount of power to even access such a thing."
+
+"A sacrifice, if the price is not too great."
+
+"That would cost hundreds of lives."
+
+"Perhaps more."
+
+"I don't think we can do that. I don't think *I* can do that."
+
+"Let us perform calculations. And think. What cost is too great for the freedom of infinity?"
+
+"Not. That." Olam forced from his faltering tongue.
+
+He stood suddenly, and exited the room with a large stride.
+
+The Thousand Worms slept, as they always had.
+
+---
+
+Adnexa beat the door 4 times, then paused. She could hear Olam stand up. He approached the door, unlatched it, and opened it.
+
+Upon seeing that it was her, he asked, tired and melancholic, "Is there something I can do for you, Princess Adnexa?"
+
+"I am sorry."
+
+Adnexa took a step forward.
+
+"I was so singularly focused on what we could achieve."
+
+She stepped forward again, mere inches from Olam now. He recoiled, slightly and slowly.
+
+"I was trying to ignore what I was feeling, that we had something more important."
+
+Adnexa placed her thumb on his cheek, palm and fingers depressing his beard. They moved together, action now dictated by passion.
+
+The Thousand Worms slept, as they always had.
+
+---
+
+"I completed the sacrificial calculus." Olam revealed. "The minimum number of people is 500, and 500 spirits. If we try to minimize total deaths, 700 humans and 40 spirits is the answer."
+
+"We've got to prioritize humanity." Adnexa replied.
+
+"500 children."
+
+"It will be an opportunity had by none others, the greatest service to the empire."
+
+"Indeed it will."
+
+---
+
+The tower stood 77 levels. The upper roof was an aperture, closed to the sky. On each floor but the bottom, there was a mechanism, holding an enormous lens, ready to direct sunlight into the shape of a cage. The hematic capacitor took up a portion of the first floor, ready to absorb its grim charge.
+
+Olam and Adnexa guided the children in. They had already locked in the spirits the night before. Once the last child had entered, Adnexa shut the door and they worked to crank the pulley attached to the upper aperture.
+
+At first, all was still. Then, visible even through the thick smoked-glass windows. An orange glow. Flame. Shouts. Screams. Pain.
+
+Olam felt strange. Peaceful. Joyous?
+
+The 2 reached for each other, fingers fiddling with clasps. Free of cloth, Olam brought his lips to Adnexa's neck, then down. Over chest and sternum, abdomen and below.
+
+Their cries were harmonized and lost in the screams from the tower.
+
+---
+
+I was stirred by a sting. From above, a beam of profane magic point-focused where I lay. This was not right. I was promised my sleep etern. Such pain, I had to rise. At the surface, a blade powered by ash.
+
+2 humans lay together at the base of the tower.
+
+I spoke my grief. "The ashes of your brothers and sisters still smoulder, this done by your hand."
+
+Acting in judgement, I bit through their flesh. Human ichor fell. I, one of thousand, could cull the evil. I reshaped the landscape, dispensing terrible death. When my rage had been sated, I was only left with sorrow and emptiness. I coiled around the land where I had been awoken, in dissipation taking the shape of a great storm which would hide and shield this profane place long beyond when I could foresee.
+
+The Thousand Worms slept, as they always had.

taxonomy/illustrati/incorporia/anima/ichoria/sciursus.md

@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 
 <meta property="og:description" content="The sciursus, known in Nakatsukuni as Sun-mo, looks similar to a giant panda.">
 
-The sciursus, known in Nakatsukuni as Sun-mo, looks similar to a giant panda, but it has 3 heads and its limbs and necks are about 4 meters long. When asked a question, each head responds with a different version of the truth. It is unknown whether there is only a single sciursus or multiple.
+The sciursus, known in [Nakatsukuni](../../../../../cosmology/conduits/warble/solar-system/warble-d/radiance/nakatsukuni.md) as Sun-mo, looks similar to a giant panda, but it has 3 heads and its limbs and necks are about 4 meters long. When asked a question, each head responds with a different version of the truth. It is unknown whether there is only a single sciursus or multiple.